Too Young to Sell Your Dreams
by Fearless Rider
Summary: SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 614! Team Gai is left to deal with the aftermath, because really, he was too young to sell his dreams. Tenten/Neji. Tenten/Lee. Tenten's POV.
1. Introduction

We didn't even know he was gone.

We were in the thick of the battle, all fighting for our lives.

They say it's not our fault. They say there was no way we could have known. That if we had known, it would have only interfered with our duties. That we would have been distracted and gotten ourselves, or worse our comrades, injured or killed. That there was nothing we could have done and to abandon our posts would have been derelict of duty.

I do not believe one word of it.

How could I not have known?

Why didn't something deep down tell me he needed us? Needed me?

I would have gone to him. I would have done the very things they say are so horrible and more. Just like he would have done for me. Just like any of us would have done for each other.

How could I not have known?

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A/N: Trying my hand at a multi-chaptered fic! Just a little first person prologue to get it started. This is only my second Naruto fic and my first try at Team Gai. Going to put it out here now that I'm very biased, because I love them, hate Naruto as of Shippuuden, and am not really a big fan of the Hyuugas other than Neji. Hopefully will manage to keep people IC, but I'm also going to disclaim here that this isn't necessarily supposed to reflect other aspects of canon, just my interpretation of Team Gai and what might have happened with them.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the story. :]

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.


	2. Chapter 1

Tenten could never remember who told her or how they did. Just that the battle was over and she was surrounded by the wreckage and she was hearing the words but they didn't make any sense to her. They couldn't be true. She had to just be tired and confused, because Neji could not be dead. She refused to believe that Neji was dead.

She felt herself walking, like she was in a daze, sleepwalking. Her eyes were taking Neji, laying on the ground. His black hair was fanned around him. His eyes were shut. Veins still bulging from using his jutsu too much.

_"Don't overdo it Neji! Just because you're a genius doesn't mean you don't have limits too!" _

_He just smiled, getting control over his breathing, a picture of calm as always. "Don't be silly Tenten. I'm fine."_

_She just rolled her eyes and with some effort straightened, trying to catch her breath. "Sometimes I really think you're even crazier than Lee and Gai-Sensei!"_

He looked like he was asleep, if you just looked at his face. She was trying so hard not to look at his body, the horrible spikes and the blood. His snow white shirt that he somehow managed to keep white through everything when her own was blackened and even Lee and Gai's jumpsuits were in tatters was gone, stained a horrible crimson color. Stained with his own blood.

Her vision was blurring as she collapsed on the ground next to him. There was an awful, heart wrenching keening wail. Maybe it was from her. She wasn't sure anymore, just that the horrible, horrible truth had set in. Neji was gone.

"Tenten!"

She didn't respond as the familiar voice called her name. She heard an intake of breath as Lee took in their teammate and suddenly he was beside her, arms around her. She turned to him and they clung to each other, both sobbing, like two children lost in the world.

One voice managed to pierce through the haze, Naruto babbling, and as the story fell into place. Without conscious thought, Tenten was on her feet, screaming unforgivable things at him and Hinata while the Hyuuga heiress cowered behind Naruto not saying a word.

It wasn't just words, her scroll was already in hand and without even thinking she had flicked it out, a small arsenal of weapons flying at the duo, because it was _their_ fault. It was all their fault that Neji was like this. It was all their fault that he was gone.

_"Be careful," she said looking at the boys earnestly. _

_"Do not worry about us Tenten!" Lee declared. "For we are all in the Springtime of Youth and in the right! We shall be victorious!"_

_"Watch your backs," Neji said. "We're not fighting together this time. Lee you have Gai-sensei but Tenten-"_

_"I'll be fine," she said. _

_"I don't trust all of these other shinobi," he said in a low voice. _

_"But Neji-san! They are now our brothers and sisters in this fight!"_

_"Be that as it may, be careful."_

_"And at the end, we shall all celebrate!" Lee said. "Right Tenten?"_

_She nodded and forced herself to smile. "Right."_

It took Gai and Lee together to get the scrolls out of her hands and they hadn't even scratched the surface of the weapons she kept on her person. They all knew it, but with Lee holding her, half in comfort, half in restraint, and Gai between her and her targets, they knew it was over. She slumped against Lee, still sobbing.

The days blurred together. Someone had taken her to the hospital. She woke up and was pushed back into sleep by the IV in her arm. Sometimes Lee or Gai were there. One time she thought she saw Ino, another Hinata, but she wasn't sure if that was real or a dream.

When she finally woke up, head comparatively clear, Lee was standing next to her, face somber dressed in black. She screwed her eyes shut again, but really being awake was no worse than being asleep, here was reality, but there had been the horrible twisted nightmares. Neji, calling for her to help him, Neji being mowed down in front of her, Neji's body, because that was all he was now, featured prominently, gruesomely, in all her nightmares.

"Tenten-chan," Lee said with none of his usual buoyancy. "They want to know if you want to come. To Neji's... to his, his, to the funeral."

_'No.'_

She didn't want to, because then it would be final. If she just waited here, she could almost pretend that it had all just been a dream. That he was going to walk in that door with his smirk and say it was about time she had woken up, but she would see in his eyes that he had been worried.

"If you do not want to go than I shall stay here with you!" Lee declared.

Tenten forced herself to open her eyes and swung her feet out of bed. "I'll come," she said, voice rusty from disuse and the tears.

His body lay on the pyre. Someone had put his hair back in its ponytail and changed him into a white robe. His headband was removed, showing his forehead which was finally free of the curse mark. It was no consolation to Tenten. If not for that, for the damn cadet branch, maybe he wouldn't have felt like he had to jump in front of Hinata. Maybe he would be with her now.

It was a small affair. She, Lee, and Gai stood in the front, them flanking her on either side. Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji, standing together looking shell shocked. Kakashi, there for Gai. Kiba and Shino, standing with Hinata, Naruto, and Sakura. Tenten's fingers curled into fists as she watched them walk up and lay flowers on the casket with Hiashi Hyuuga. They didn't deserve to be here. They didn't deserve to pretend they even cared that he was gone. As far as Hiashi and Hinata could be concerned he had done his duty.

"Don't," Gai murmured in her ear, rightly guessing her thoughts and what she'd like to do."What can be forgiven on a battlefield in the heat of the moment can not be now."

"I don't care."

"Don't do it," Gai said. "He wouldn't want you to if nothing else."

Her arms went limp. "Fine," she whispered.

"Come on," Lee took her hand and together they walked to the coffin.

Tenten stared at his face, fingers clutching the white rose, still trying to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. It was still sinking in, or maybe it was just going to sink in over and over. Neji, her Neji, was gone.

She put the flower down. Gai and Lee both got up and said a piece, but she couldn't find her voice, much less words.

When they closed the coffin, she started to take a step forward, feeling slightly insane. They couldn't close him up in there. They couldn't bury him.

Gai caught her wrist and Lee put his arm around her. "I know," Gai said quietly.

"Tenten-chan-" Hinata was standing there, awkwardly. "Neji-"

"Don't say his name!" Tenten cried. "Don't even say it!"

"He made his choice, Naruto said. "You should honor it."

"No, he didn't," Tenten said bitterly. "The Hyuugas made a choice."

And then she ran.

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A/N: Maybe tormenting everyone by writing depressing fanfiction is a form of therapy, right? Stay tuned for Chapter 2. As always reviews or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for reading! ^^


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